Monday, February 11, 2013

A FRIEND'S FAITHFUL PRAYER



 Paint Chips
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After writing my novel Paint Chips, I asked a few friends to pray that it would find a publishing home. My debut novel had an edge that I knew might be difficult to place.

My friends prayed. I submitted query letters. We waited. After a short time, the rejection letters came. It wasn't right for the Christian market. There was no audience. A similar novel had recently been published.

I wanted to give up. Write a second novel and try again. Write this one off as a learning experience.

"God's going to find just the right publisher for that book," Hedy said. "I pray for that every day."

Hedy was in my Bible study. She was the kind of faithful matriarch who is up before the sun to pray over her friends and family. And she remembers every single item on her list. If nothing else ever went well for Paint Chips, at least Hedy prayed for it.

I surrendered the novel. Told God to do as He pleased with it. Stopped fretting over it. A week later, Dina Sleiman (acquisitions editor from WhiteFire Publishing) made contact. She asked for the opportunity to read my novel. A few months later, I signed a book contract. Now, less than a year later, Paint Chips is available for digital readers and the paperback releases in April.

One of my favorite things? Telling Hedy that God had found a publisher. And just the right one. I expected her to be surprised. To clap her hands and squeal a little.

"Well, honey," she said, as calm as could be. "I knew He would."

Such confidence in prayer. Such a beautiful thing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSMoQbBS6D4]
head shotSusie Finkbeineris the writer of fiction, both short and long. Her deepest desire is that her fiction reflects the love of Jesus in a broken world. She and her husband are raising their three children in the beauty of Michigan.

You can download Paint Chips from the following booksellers for only $3.99.




Connect with Susie on her blog www.susiefinkbeiner.com or on her Facebook page.

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